Tarja Halonen Editor

President Tarja Halonen was the 11th President of the Republic of Finland (2000–2012) and Finland’s first female head of state. President Halonen is famous for her special ties with the core activities of the ILO. During 2002–2004, she co-chaired the ILO World Commission of the Social Dimension of Globalization. From March 2009 until September 2014, she served as the Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders. In August 2010, President Tarja Halonen was appointed co-chair of the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Global Sustainability. She was the co-chair of the High-Level Task Force for ICPD from 2012 to 2016. From 2015 to 2017, President Halonen served as a member of the World Bank World Development Report 2017 Advisory Group. She continues to promote issues related to sustainable development in her many other roles, including, as a member of Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s Leadership Council, as a member of Pan-European Commission on Health and Sustainable Development and as a Chair of Lancet-SIGHT commission on Peaceful Societies through Health and Gender Equality. In Finland, she serves as the Chair of the Board of the University of Helsinki, is a member of the Board of SITRA and is also chairing the Board of the Finnish National Gallery.

Ulla Liukkunen is Professor of Labour Law and Private International Law at the University of Helsinki. She is also the Director of the Finnish Center of Chinese Law and Chinese Legal Culture. Professor Liukkunen has published widely on labour law, private international law, comparative law, transnational law and the governance of the social dimension of globalization. She has led two Academy of Finland international labour law research projects, “ILO Core Labour Standards Implementation in China: Legal Architecture and Cultural Logic” and “Employee Participation and Collective Bargaining in the Era of Globalization – Nordic and Chinese Perspectives”. Professor Liukkunen has wide experience in national and EU law drafting and she has acted as an expert in several international projects on labour law and private international law.